This invention generally relates to an article of clothing. Specifically, it pertains to a scarf or scarf-like article of clothing designed to take and hold certain defined shapes when worn around the neck of the wearer.
Scarves are an important accessory to any wardrobe because they offer warmth, versatility, and a way to accent or complete a wardrobe. Scarves are typically flat, rectangular, straight edged, and are made from a uniformly woven or knitted cloth material. Frequently, these straight edge scarves are woven to be precisely straight, to have even knitting, and to have an even knit tension differential. Because of this even knit tension differential, most scarves are limp and fail to hold the shape that the wearer places the scar in around the neck. As such, the wearer is forced to continually adjust the scarf so that it once again takes the shape desired by the user.
Although there are mechanisms external to the stitch types or knit types of the scarf, such as plastic inserts or elastic bands, which can be used to create a scarf that holds its shape, there is no scarf available that holds its shape solely from knit tension. A scarf with knit tension differential between opposing sides along the length of a scarf produces the effect of a scarf that takes and holds certain desired shapes when it is worn by a user. To date, no such scarf has been commercially available on the market.
A typical scarf is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 1,666,819, issued to Goetze. Goetze discloses a scarf that is rectangular, flat, and has two types of knit stitching, a tight stitch on the outer edges and a loose stitch on the inside. However, the knit stitching of the scarves of Goetze does not create a knit tension differential between opposing sides along the length of the scarf, and it does not produce the effect of a scarf that takes and holds a desired specific shape when it is worn by a user. Indeed, the dual knit stitching of the Goetze scarf is wholly for an ornamentally visual effect and serves no actual structural utilitarian purpose.
There are scarves commercially available, such as curly whirlies, that are stitched or knitted so that the scarf takes on a circular shape. However, a curly whirly is specifically knitted to have a circular-corkscrew shape, and the curvature of a curly whirly is usually so extreme that it gives the scarf a wavy or warped look. Additionally, the curly whirly does not have a knit tension differential between opposing sides along the length of the scarf, and it does not produce the effect of a scarf that holds a shape when worn by a user. Indeed, a curly whirly is designed to be floppy and wavy, rather than architecturally structured and shape retaining.
Thus, there remains a long felt need in the art for a scarf with knit tension differential between opposing sides along the length of the scarf that produces the effect of a scarf that takes and holds certain specific desired shapes when it is worn by a user.